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Health & Fitness

Anxiety, the Body's Burglar Alarm

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of patients with anxiety!

March 30, 2012

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of anxious patients.  My patients worry about everything:  their health, their family’s health, the economy, the election, “ObamaCare,” taxes, and a host of other problems.  I think worrying has risen to the level of a full time job.

While you can worry yourself sick, worry and anxiety are not the same thinks.  I believe worrying triggers anxiety and excessive worrying triggers excessive or uncontrolled anxiety. 

I often view anxiety as the body’s burglar alarm.  If the growling dog does not provoke anxiety, you get bitten!  If standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon does not make you anxious, you may lean over too far and plummet to your death.  Anxiety helps protect you from danger.

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Uncontrolled anxiety can hurt you!  In the extreme, anxiety can either immobilize you (agoraphobia) or scare you into believing you are having a heart attack (panic attack).  

Worry and anxiety need to be controlled!  Real threats need to be responded to, imaginary threats need to be analyzed and put to rest.

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On 12/20/10, I wrote “Worried Sick.”  On 10/15/11, I wrote “Worry.”  On 3/27/11, I wrote “The Art of Worrying.”  I obviously worry a lot about my patients’ worries.  Worrying leads to anxiety and uncontrolled anxiety makes you sick.

So, in a world where the media bombards you with threats, where livelihoods are threatened, and life’s complexities seem to exponentially expand daily, is it any wonder that I see a lot of anxious patients?  Not at all!

What can you and I do to lessen our worries and decrease our anxieties to a healthy level?  I write!  Writing helps me organize my worries into a workable format in which they can be addressed.  Writing helps me remain flexible by increasing my knowledge of myself and the world around me.  Writing also helps me vent!

What do I worry about?  I don’t worry about the usual things.  In most of life, my motto is, “It is what it is; get on with it.”  I have an “Attitude of Gratitude” that sustains me.

What I worry about is my patients’ care.  I worry about my dying profession.  I worry about the day when the care I deliver will be dictated by a “Central Authority.”

So I write.  I write to teach my patients how to take responsibility for their health.  I write to arm patients with the knowledge they need to care for themselves and their family.  I write to teach patients how to effectively deal with what’s worrying them.  I write to teach people that being anxious is a normal human emotion and that anxiety can be addressed without taking a pill.

Be flexible in how you approach life.  When what you are worried/anxious about is out of your control, adopt an “It is what it is” approach.  When what you’re worried about is under your control, then define what the problem is and find a solution.  When your worry/anxiety is out of control, see your doc/therapist!

Anxiety can keep you safe.  Don’t let it make you sick!  Be happy.  Get “Wellthy!”

Posted by LiveWellthy.ORG at 3/29/2012 6:44 AM

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